INTERVIEW: ‘Bombardier Blood’ chronicles mountaineer with hemophilia summiting Everest
Photo: Bombardier Blood finds Chris Bombardier climbing Mount Everest and spreading awareness about hemophilia, a rare blood disorder. Photo courtesy of press team / Provided with permission.
Chris Bombardier has lived a remarkable life. As a climber, he has summited the world’s highest mountains, ticking off each one off with a personal sense of accomplishment and respect for the natural obstacle. He has accomplished these feats while living with hemophilia, a rare genetic bleeding disorder.
His adventures in life are the subject of Patrick James Lynch’s new documentary Bombardier Blood, which opened today, Aug. 18 and is available virtually. In the film, which is executive produced by Alex Borstein, Bombardier can be seen preparing for his most difficult climbing challenge yet: summiting Mount Everest. Along the way, he meets hemophilia advocates and families in Nepal touched personally by the blood disorder.
“The climber, Chris, he’s a great friend of mine now, but he became a friend through this project,” Lynch said in a recent phone interview. “We didn’t know each other before this, but he knew me as the guy with hemophilia who made content and films. And I knew him as the guy with hemophilia who lived in the outdoors and climbed mountains, and at a meeting five or six years ago, he asked if we could sit down. And he pitched this idea for a documentary built around his climb of Everest.”
Up until that point, Bombardier was struggling to find funders and storytellers to latch on to his adventuresome ambitions. He had been climbing the seven highest summits around the world as part of an awareness campaign, but he was lacking a little bit when it came to the awareness. That’s when Lynch came into the picture.
“He wasn’t getting the interest, but Everest was coming up,” the filmmaker said. “And he thought that might be an opportunity to get people’s attention and to really tell this story that showcases what you can do with hemophilia if you have medicine and access and good treatment over your life and, on the other hand, what is not possible for you if, say, you’re born in Nepal, where Everest is, where life expectancy with hemophilia is unfortunately less than 10 years old. That’s what hooked me. I thought that’s a great story. That’s compelling. That’s a story of right now where we are with medicine and disparity, and there’s so much in that.”
Lynch found Bombardier to be such an earnest individual, and it was clear to the director that he would be a likable subject for the audience. At their first meeting together, Lynch was convinced this would turn into an excellent documentary, similar to his other projects, some of which center on hemophilia as well.
“Neither of us had any idea how we were going to get it funded or supported or find a finish line, but it didn’t matter at that point,” he said. “By the time he had approached me, he had climbed five of the seven summits, so five of the tallest mountains around the world. So he had that in his history at that point. He did have a lot of trouble in part getting support and attention within the bleeding disorders community in the beginning, but as he became more established, people were more comfortable talking about what he was up to. What I found most interesting was when I interviewed all his clinicians. I had questions … ‘Are you at all nervous about this?’ He was a baseball player in college. He’s a skier. And I know this is Colorado, and people have an outdoor lifestyle.”
Still, despite that outdoors lifestyle, Lynch was unsure about Bombardier’s mission. What if he failed in his attempt? What if something happened while he was climbing Everest, which can happen to anyone trying to summit the highest peak in the world?
“Chris had established himself as such a credible individual,” the filmmaker said. “His having hemophilia didn’t become a reason not to do it, which is kind of the whole point. Hemophilia shouldn’t stop someone from living out their dream, not in 2020, not with the medicine that’s available.”
Lynch sees Bombardier Blood as a movie with a two-fold mission. The first aspect is to showcase a story that puts a real face on hemophilia. Another aspect is to be excited about the future. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to stop the pursuit of something physical,” he said. “With what science has made possible, there’s reason for hope. There’s reasons to be excited, and that’s feedback that I’ve gotten from a lot of parents.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Bombardier Blood, directed by Patrick James Lynch, is now available virtually. Click here for more information.
